Sapphire

On the very first page of "The Kid," we learn Precious has died, leaving behind an orphan 9-year-old son, Abdul. Just like that, Sapphire, whose novel "Push" was adapted into one of 2009's most acclaimed films, "Precious," moves aside her troubled and inspiring creation so that this can be Abdul's story. Told from his point of view, it is a harrowing, sometimes bewildering tale. He didn't fully grasp the severity of his mother's AIDS; he doesn't understand that he no longer has a home.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card is joining the ranks of the smart-card set later this month when it becomes available with a chip. The card will continue to have a magnetic stripe -- the standard most often used in the U.S, in which the card is swiped, then the receipt signed to complete a transaction. However, the new card also will have an embedded computer chip, the standard used in much of the world. The new cards will still require a signature; they are, not surprisingly, called chip-and-signature cards.

BOOKS Don Lattin The author of "The Harvard Psychedelic Club" presents and signs his lively history of how Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith and Andrew Weil crossed paths in the early '60s at a Harvard-sponsored psychedelic-drug research project. Lattin tracks the resultant launching of a new American culture centered on yoga classes, organic produce and alternative medicine. Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd. 7 p.m. Free. (310) 659-3110. www.booksoup.com. Sapphire The writer had a mainstream breakout with the film "Precious," based on her novel "Push."

Re "A dry spell for forest lovers," Oct. 1 In the past The Times has been viciously criticized for publishing graphic depictions of violence in troubled parts of the world. Readers have labeled such images disgusting and obscene. Tuesday's photograph of the graffiti-besmirched Sapphire Falls in the San Bernardino National Forest registers as even more repulsive. Closing high-risk fire areas during the most dangerous time of year, as has been done with Sapphire Falls, seems like a wise and pragmatic decision.

Adapted screenplay "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" Geoffrey Fletcher Among the biggest surprises of the night, Geoffrey Fletcher won for adapted screenplay for "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire." The award makes him the first African American to win a screenwriting Oscar. The heavy favorite had been Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner's script for "Up in the Air." Taking the stage, the seemingly awe-struck Fletcher began, "I don't know what to say. This is for everybody who works on a dream every day."

The boy brought home a dull-colored half-pound stone he found on the hillside, and his father, Harry Spencer, thought of the perfect place for it. They would use it as a doorstop. The year was 1938, and their home was a modest shack in a sparsely populated, dusty stretch of gem-mining territory in central Queensland, Australia. The stone sat at the backdoor for 10 years, until a jeweler recognized its potential and brought it across the Pacific. In Los Angeles, it was polished to reveal a six-pronged, mesmerizingly beautiful star -- or so goes the story that is passed down about the largest-known star sapphire in the world.

Everyone plays for high stakes in Ilakaka. You can get rich or you can get killed. This city at the heart of Madagascar's sapphire mining industry is estimated to produce 30% of the world's sapphires -- worth at least $30 million a year. And in the Wild West lifestyle of shady casinos and banditry that swaggered into town with the fabulous mining wealth, speculators are being killed at an alarming rate, with as many as 30 homicides a year in a town of 20,000. One of this year's victims was Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law.

When Mary Pickford died in 1979 she bequeathed her large star sapphire, the Star of Bombay, to the Smithsonian if the museum would take it. I called the gem man there and asked him if he wanted to take possession. He came right out to Los Angeles, and upon seeing the gem said, "We want this sapphire. It is much brighter than our others--we will trade them off." He opened his pocket knife and pried the clasps loose, freeing the sapphire from the elaborate diamond necklace. He wrapped it in a soft cloth, put it in his coat pocket and returned to Washington.

Gov. Charlie Crist became the first sitting Florida governor to wed in nearly 42 years, exchanging vows at a ceremony attended by about 200 relatives, friends and celebrities. The 52-year-old governor wed New York socialite Carole Rome, 39, in St. Petersburg. They met at a dinner in New York City in September 2007, and Crist proposed less than 10 months later with a sapphire engagement ring. Crist kissed Rome briefly at the end of the ceremony -- perhaps too briefly. She put her hands on his face and kissed him again.

BEST PICTURE "Avatar" "The Blind Side" "District 9" "An Education" "The Hurt Locker" "Inglourious Basterds" "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" "A Serious Man" "Up" "Up in the Air" SPOTLIGHT: In a classic David-versus-Goliath fight, pitting more than $2-billion box office giant "Avatar" against "The Hurt Locker," a maverick indie that has reaped only $16...

Holders of Chase bank's popular Sapphire credit card may be wondering why they'll soon be on their own when it comes to keeping fraudsters at bay. "Please note that ID Theft Coverage will be canceled," Chase has notified Sapphire cardholders. "All changes are effective Nov. 1, 2013. " That's a pretty significant reversal considering that identity-related fraud affected 12.6 million U.S. consumers last year and caused $21 billion in losses, according to Javelin Strategy & Research.

Mud Lionsgate, $19.98; Blu-ray, $24.99 Available on VOD beginning Aug. 6 One of the best pieces of news of this movie year has been the quiet box office success of writer-director Jeff Nichols' coming-of-age drama, starring Matthew McConaughey as a fugitive criminal who enlists two teenage boys to help him fix up a boat so he can escape with his troublemaking childhood sweetheart (Reese Witherspoon). Like Nichols' "Shotgun Stories" and "Take Shelter," "Mud" is about the stress of family obligations and the quirks of lives lived well outside the big city.

Hollywood actor-turned-bad boy Charlie Sheen will bring some star power to the Memorial Day Weekend party in Las Vegas at Sapphire Pool & Day Club , which bills itself as “the world's largest gentlemen's club.” Sheen will mingle with male guests and scantily clad women on Saturday. A red carpet walk is scheduled for 2 p.m.; the meet-and-greet is expected to continue until about 5 p.m. Admission is $50. Sheen's big break came in 1986, when he landed a leading role in the epic Vietnam movie “Platoon.” By 2010, he had become one of Hollywood's best-paid actors, earning a reported $1.8 million per episode on TV's “ Two and a Half Men .” His well-publicized struggles with drugs and alcohol led to his departure from the hit show in 2011.

Some diversions invite comparison more readily than others. Take "The Sapphires," the most chipper film ever set in Vietnam. Already many have taken it, and liked it. If you enjoyed "Strictly Ballroom" or "The Commitments," which is to say if you fell for the slightly pushy charms of those show-business fables (one fantasy Australian, the other Irish, though directed by an Englishman), then chances are you'll go for this true-ish story of an Aborigine singing group entertaining the American troops, enemy fire be damned, in 1968 - like Bob Hope and Raquel Welch, New South Wales division.

Hours before showtime at UCLA's Royce Hall, Teri Meredyth leaned into a new Steinway & Sons concert grand piano. Behind her, stagehands hammered together a stage extension. In front, workers shoved into place wooden panels for a backdrop. Stage left, an electrician shouted to a colleague aiming spotlights. Meredyth, the hall's longtime piano technician, pounded the keys of the 9-foot-long grand, listening for off-kilter harmonics. She tweaked tuning pins and pricked felt hammers with a needle to soften them and thus warm the tone that would be produced when they hit the strings.

On the very first page of "The Kid," we learn Precious has died, leaving behind an orphan 9-year-old son, Abdul. Just like that, Sapphire, whose novel "Push" was adapted into one of 2009's most acclaimed films, "Precious," moves aside her troubled and inspiring creation so that this can be Abdul's story. Told from his point of view, it is a harrowing, sometimes bewildering tale. He didn't fully grasp the severity of his mother's AIDS; he doesn't understand that he no longer has a home.

Nothing quite prepares you for the rough-cut diamond that is "Precious." A rare blend of pure entertainment and dark social commentary, this shockingly raw, surprisingly irreverent and absolutely unforgettable story of an obese, illiterate, pregnant black Harlem teen circa 1987 is one that you hope will not be dismissed as too difficult, because it should not be missed. "Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire" will challenge you, but it will also move you as it rocks between the horrific realities and escapist fantasies of 16-year-old Claireece Precious Jones (impressive newcomer Gabourey Sidibe)

Janus, the Roman god for whom the first month of the Gregorian calendar is named, has two heads ? one looking forward to the future and another looking back to the past. That might make just him the most appropriate mascot for 2011's emerging trends ? a simultaneous embrace of technology, such as 4-D and social networks, and a fascination with quainter notions, such as good customer service, ballet and royalty. What follows are some of the main trends we expect to see in the worlds of pop culture and style in the coming year.

BOOKS Don Lattin The author of "The Harvard Psychedelic Club" presents and signs his lively history of how Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith and Andrew Weil crossed paths in the early '60s at a Harvard-sponsored psychedelic-drug research project. Lattin tracks the resultant launching of a new American culture centered on yoga classes, organic produce and alternative medicine. Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd. 7 p.m. Free. (310) 659-3110. www.booksoup.com. Sapphire The writer had a mainstream breakout with the film "Precious," based on her novel "Push."